Why Is Nirvana Missing From a Heavenly Tour Season?

Here comes summer, when a rock star’s fancy turns to . . . touring.

Just last week, Bruce Springsteen and the team of Guns N’ Roses and Metallica joined the likes of U2, the Cure, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Genesis and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who had already announced they’ll be hitting the road this summer, traditionally the most active concert season of the year.

So where’s Nirvana?

Here’s the hottest new property in rock in years, a group whose “Nevermind” album has been in the Top 10 for more than six months--and yet it is so underexposed tour-wise that it has played only a handful of shows to audiences of more than 3,000. You just know there are thousands of fans in every city eager to flock to any shows they’d do.

At one point Nirvana had reportedly planned to mount an “anti-Lollapalooza” tour--a trek mocking the “alternative” rock package topped this summer by the Chili Peppers. But John Silva, the Seattle-based band’s manager, says that Nirvana probably won’t hit the road until it has recorded another album, which may mean 1993.

The low profile has renewed published speculation that singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain has a heroin problem.

Cobain, who rarely talks with the press, wasn’t available for comment, but he denied in a recent Rolling Stone interview that he uses the drug. “I don’t even drink any more because it destroys my stomach. My body wouldn’t allow me to take drugs if I wanted to, because I’m so weak all the time.”

A band spokesman blamed the tour delay on those stomach problems, which are said to be aggravated by the singer’s refusal to follow doctors’ orders to stop smoking and to eat better.

Cobain also is said to want to spend this time with his new wife, Courtney Love, lead singer of Hole. Love--whose highly acclaimed group has just been signed by DGC Records, the same Geffen label Nirvana’s on--is five months pregnant, and the couple is just closing a deal for a house in the Seattle area.

And what will Nirvana’s absence this summer mean in a fickle rock world where bands either strike while the iron is hot or may never be able to strike at all?

Opinions are mixed.

Some industry insiders surveyed by Pop Eye say the low profile may be good for Nirvana considering the high visibility of the band in the press, radio and MTV. You know a band is getting near the saturation level when Weird Al Yankovic parodies one of its songs.

Others, however, say it would be good for Nirvana to be playing live to firm up its ties to new fans.

“I just don’t think there’s ever been a band that’s been overexposed,” said Brian Murphy, president of Avalon Attractions, Los Angeles’ most prominent concert promoter. “And it’s been underexposed in this marketplace. I think they should do a big show and let their die-hard fans see them once before going back to the studio.”

Bob Bell, new-releases buyer for the 300-plus-store Wherehouse chain, agreed, and said that even Nirvana’s mega-sales could be helped by a big tour.

“With the kind of fan base they have it’s important that the kids get to see them live,” he said. “With this kind of street-oriented band, getting out and playing for people is really important.”

But Geffen Records executive Gary Gersh, who signed Nirvana to DGC, says it doesn’t matter either way.

“What I think is critical is that Kurt’s stomach gets better and it’s critical that they have a good and healthy pregnancy and baby,” he said. “In the biggest scheme of things it would be great for them to be out touring Europe and the world this summer, but I don’t think touring this summer is the difference between whether the fans accept them or not. The quality of what they do is the difference . . . and whatever they do next will be at the highest level of quality.”